Tonight actress Parker Posey and local news anchor Will Thomas team up to host the Fashion Fights Poverty. The annual fashion show is the FFP’s biggest effort, and Washington D.C.’s largest fashion fundraiser. A creation of the Style & Image Network, FFP raises “awareness on how fashion, textiles, and artisanship can alleviate poverty and empower communities.” The runway show spotlights international designers dedicated to ethical design and manufacturing (“fair trade, equitable compensation, and the use of environmentally-sustainable materials”), and educates consumers on responsible shopping.

Click here for more on this year’s designers.

The proceeds from tonight’s ticket sales and silent auction benefit Nest programs, devoted to helping women in developing countries.

I’m home in the D.C. area this week (code for “suburban Maryland”). Perusing the local websites and papers, I realize that nothing makes you more independent than being the only one doing something! D.C. has never been known for much of anything fashionable (except for Tim Gunn). The Washington Post’s fashion editor, Robin Givhan, works from NY, and the paper has hardly covered Fashion Week. Some of the better D.C.-based fashion blogs, Fashion is Spinach, and The President Wears Prada, have mentioned Fashion Week, albeit minimally; and hip culture sites Panda Head and Brightest Young Things haven’t touched on it at all. No one I know here is talking about Fashion Week; the morning news doesn’t touch on it; and this morning an old man in CVS stared at my knee-high gladiators like they needed an exorcism. The whole culture is obviously different.

I’m trying to figure out if D.C. doesn’t care or doesn’t need to care. You’re kind of trained to think that all the trends spring from the runway shows. Either Washington is totally clueless or has some secret other means to fashion. Georgetown has some decent boutiques (above), college kids love thrifting, and the outfits of Baltimore art students are usually on point. But I wonder what impact the isolation from the fashion world has on the locals. Are fledgling designers here more creative without direct influences? Do they still have the same influences (via blogs and magazines)? Are the local stylists all L.A. transplants?

The independently-run DC Fashion Week kicks off Sunday, and the Fashion Fights Poverty show is later this month. I’m curious to see the media coverage of the fairly new events. They’ve been gradually growing, but does D.C. care?